The present invention relates to a feeding apparatus which separates stacked sheets one by one and feeds each sheet and an image recording apparatus which comprises such a feeding apparatus.
A conventional image recording apparatus, such as various types of printers and facsimile machines, comprises a feeding apparatus which houses in its sheet feeder cassette plural stacked recording sheets, separates the sheets one by one as a sheet feeder roller rotates and feeds each sheet to an image recording part.
In the feeding apparatus which is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-233836 for instance, a drive shaft is disposed above a sheet feeder cassette along the perpendicular direction to a sheet feeding direction and an arm member is attached to the drive shaft in such a manner that the arm member can rotate. A distal end of the arm member extends toward a direction which is close to a slanted separating part which is disposed at one end of the sheet feeder cassette, and a sheet feeder roller which feeds sheets stacked in the sheet feeder cassette is attached to the distal end of the arm member. An urging spring urges the arm member so that the sheet feeder roller always stays in contact with the top surface of the stacked sheets regardless of the amount of the sheets stacked up in the sheet feeder cassette, and the sheet feeder roller is driven to rotate by the drive shaft via a gear drive transmission mechanism which is attached to the arm member.
In the structure above, when the sheet feeder roller rotates in a predetermined direction, plural sheets on the sheet feeder cassette are fed, and only the top one of the sheets gets separated when passing the slanted separating part.